Thursday, May 28, 2009

You guys have certainly stepped up to the plate and done quite a bit with the RKS Wiki, and for that, I am very grateful! However, the point of the RKS Wiki is to provide accurate information, gathered in a professional manner, and so, there are a few things I'd like to make light of.

1) We should not be using the information from the deleted Rosenkreuzstilette Wikipedia entry.

I cannot stress enough that Spiritia Rosenberg was not born in 1985. I do believe I made a post about information inaccuracies some time ago and used the entry as a specific example. I'm not sure where that level of information is coming from, as there is not even official information that alludes even mistakenly to the fact. I do know that the front page does say there will be certain inaccuracies to the information posted there for the time being, but come on, guys, we know better than that.

Not only is this article wrong, it looks terrible. There are official pictures of Zeppy, either with Schwer-Muta or on the side of a glass. It is unacceptable to be uploading fanart for any reason unless there is a specific reason for it (such as, say, an article for Kiora, for which there will be one; I will make it, don't even touch it). This doesn't just apply to Justin; it applies to everyone. Don't do it.

3) Every character from the original RKS was designed by [erka:es], no one else.

Just keep that in mind. Credit goes where it's due on the Freudenstachel Dark Magi gang.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

I noticed an article on the wiki for Axelle, which was kind of surprising, but the information was wrong, so I updated it, and I'm here to set the record straight. I wanted the information on Axelle to be somewhat mysterious, making her prime for rumors, but I figure I might as well say something.

When the boss submission contest was announced, I decided I had to get in on that action, so I requested the help of my girlfriend at the time, DeviantArt user Rintycakes, to help me with the drawing. She had lost the pen for her tablet, so we had to resort to a colorless drawing that was later scanned.

The original image we had for the idea of Axelle, now lost to us, looks much different from the one you see submitted on her DeviantArt. The reason for that is we were both big Lucky Star fans at the time (the picture above is something she did for one of her classes in high school), and I'll be the first to tell you that aside from the glorious Misao Kusakabe, one of the best characters in the show is Nanako Kuroi, the blond school teacher. Her love of the series especially tended to be reflected in her art, and so the second draft of the image came out looking a lot more like Kuroi-sensei than I was hoping, but I love her, so I was fine with it. I even gave Axelle a Kansai accent to go with it. The outfit that you see Axelle wearing in Rint's drawing is based on an outfit she actually owned.

I don't exactly remember all of the details that we submitted to [erka:es] concerning Axelle Blitzdonner, but the main thing I wanted to focus on was that Rosenkreuzstilette had no electricity-based boss nor did it have an attack based on an electric move from an existing Megaman game, at least none that were very apparent. I wanted to change that with Axelle, so I made everything about her lightning-based. Her hair was put in a super-long jagged ponytail, a direct copy of the Pikachu tail's design. She wielded a giant hammer that was actually based on a 100-pound linoleum roller I used often during my job as a flooring installer. I had dubbed the thing Mjöllnir, which is the name of Thor's hammer, and this carried over to Axelle as well. It wasn't Thor's actual hammer, but Axelle liked to pretend it was. Her "action gloves" also had electric power and could release Spark Mandrill-style spark attacks that ran along the floor and through the air. I had everything planned out; it was all very exciting. We were disappointed that we couldn't have it in color, and wouldn't you know it, we found her tablet pen shortly after the submission deadline. Them's the breaks.

Somewhere down the road, a LiveJournal user and fellow RKS fan Deltashade/Gammashade posted this entry in his RKS Fanon LJ Community talking about the new characters that had been announced/revealed for Freudenstachel by [erka:es]. Sadly, Axelle Blitzdonner was not one of them, but as Deltashade knew me from a forum we both posted on, he was aware of her existence. Interestingly enough, he said that Axelle Blitzdonner had been designed by Mint Mania IIDX, one of the internet handles I've used, and not Trick Master Mint, the name under which Axelle was submitted to [erka:es]. Not long after, someone from Rockman Perfect Memories picked up on the information and included it in the synopsis for Freudenstachel. Before long, Axelle was coming up all over the place: her name had been mentioned at least once on Hongfire, someone mistook Hero of Justice Luste for Axelle Blitzdonner on a danbooru-style image gallery, etc. Axelle was quite the mysterious character, and next to nothing was known about her. Strangely enough, my name was tacked on to her everywhere, and I'm not exactly hard to find, but no one thought to really ask me.

Somewhere during that time frame, 2ch found Axelle Blitzdonner through a Google search for RKS fanart, and it was their first real exposure to the English RKS fanbase. Quite a few of them were very surprised that someone from outside of Japan had made a submission, and at least one person said something to the effect of "It might not be fair if there are foreign submissions and the only ones that win are Japanese," or so I'm told.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing that says Axelle Blitzdonner is or is not in Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel. I would be incredibly excited to see her in any form (even a Gutsman tank), but I certainly won't get my hopes up. I would be very grateful to [erka:es] for including her, though. As it stands, however, Axelle has no canon existence in the RKS universe and lives only in a dream I have. We'll see what happens.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Schwer readers, I need help making the RKS wiki, as I have no idea what I'm doing and accidentally broke the damn thing trying to edit a page. I will provide the necessary information to fill into the various pages (main article, character pages, etc) if someone can just set it up for me. Please and thank you, and if you want to fill in some information yourself, be my guest. Superjustinbros has already contributed a few entries, so please help yourself. I will eventually be going in and making corrections and what-not, and eventually, I'll be hiring Wiki Janitors into the Schwer team. Special thanks to anyone who wants to contribute!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

[erka:es] Blog Stuff:- Isemiya appears to have fixed most if not all of the bugs in the Freudenstachel demo. It's safe to assume that the Web Trial is due out soon.- WOMI has a Zeppy glass.

RKSF News:- According to Isemiya, Freudenstachel will feature a stage that breaks the normal flow of gameplay. This includes the possibility of an X-style bike stage or an MM8-style jump-jump-slide-slide nightmare.- With the return of Trauare's stage, some are wondering if Freudia will be able to swim a la Megaman 8.

2ch Stuff:- Zorne-lover Kiora has been taking art requests in the RKS thread on 2ch. You can find them on the RKS Uploader.

RKS Blog Stuff:- Schwer reader Sacat has informed us that he is currently working on a Stepmania simfile for Schwer-Muta's stage theme and has shown interest in stepping other songs from the game as well. (As a note, I have stepped Luste's theme. [Download]) Leave a comment for him or for us if you want to be involved.- English RKS Wiki will be operational soon.- RKS Challenge 009 is forthcoming.

English TL Patch Info:- English Demo will be released no later than June 1st.- Full English game patch will be released before the end of June.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

So it would appear that the RKS doujin belongs to RKS fan Kiora, and the first three pages were available on his website/pixiv account, so we of Schwer and Schwer Alike have taken the liberty of translating and editing what's available. I'm not sure where this is headed, but we'll definitely make sure to translate and release the pages as they come out!

A new doujin page has been taken straight from the uploader. When our translator wakes up, we'll get on bringing you an English version, unless one of you who can read Japanese comments first. You'll be credited accordingly.

So 2ch discussion has been interesting as of late. Shortly after they posted about Truant's Grolla picture, which one found quite cute, and the RKSF Prologue stage, they began claiming Rosenkreuzstilette waifus. Now, I normally wouldn't ask this, but whatever. I figure the results won't be much different from the poll anyway, but here's our question. Schwer readers, who is your RKS waifu?

Friday, May 1, 2009

I've been meaning to do something about this for quite a while, so here it is. Again, if you don't want spoilers, I would suggest not watching this, though it's nothing really spectacular. More information is in the video description.

Site Introduction

Where in the world are you? I'm glad you asked! Welcome to Schwer and Schwer Alike, the main English blog site for all things Rosenkreuzstilette (RKS for short). RKS is a Mega Man clone doujin game created by [erka:es] and is a much-needed piece of work in a world where Capcom won't release Mega Man Universe or Legends 3.

Formerly a duo, [erka:es] is currently a one-man show run by WOMI, the series main artist. There's a link below to their main website, if you're so inclined, and if you're interested, you can try the game's English demo or purchase it at DLSite (link below)! The possibilities are endless!